State of the District event benefits Foundation

(EL PASO INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT -- March 29, 2018) — EPISD is at the forefront of education and is providing students and parents with an array of options that are helping prepare El Paso’s future workforce, Superintendent Juan E. Cabrera said on Thursday during the annual State of the District Address.

More than 300 civic, business and educational leaders from throughout the city gathered at the Wyndham Hotel and Conference Center to listen to the address and celebrate the work being done in EPISD.

The event – which is organized by the District on behalf of the EPISD Education Foundation – also gave more than 100 students from dozens of schools the opportunity to showcase their programs and work.

“We are here to support innovation … innovation in our classrooms, in our teaching and in our community,” Cabrera told the audience. “It’s this type of outside-the-box approach that helps students from our District dream beyond their borders.”

Cabrera spoke about student and instructional successes during the event, including highlights about EPISD’s innovative programs like Dual Language Schools, International Baccalaureate programs and New Tech Network.

He also mentioned EPISD’s Active Learning Framework, which is the backbone to the 21st century teaching and learning method being applied throughout the District.

The Framework asks teachers to engage students in hands-on, interactive and project-based learning.

“We are changing the way we taught 100 years ago and adapting for the 21st century,” he said. “To have active learners, we need active teachers. We are training our teachers to meet the needs of students.”

Classrooms that have adopted Active Learning are outperforming non-Active Learning classrooms in all areas of the End of Course Exams, EPISD data shows.

Cabrera also shared with those in the audience some of the programs that make EPISD a clear choice for parents: a robust fine arts curriculum, improved UIL athletic facilities and state-of-the-art classrooms that will be the result of Bond 2016.

KVIA Channel 7 anchor Stephanie Valle served as the mistress of ceremony for the event, which raised more than $80,000 for the EPISD Education Foundation. The Foundation uses nearly every dollar it raises to give scholarships to graduating seniors and classroom grants to teachers.

The keynote speaker for the event was Saul Ramirez, the Henderson Middle School art teacher and chess coach that has made news by winning back-to-back national chess championship. Ramirez is the current EPISD Secondary Teacher of the Year.

“We appreciate all our sponsors for their continued participation,” said Russell Wiggs, the Foundation’s president. “We have scholarship recipients attending colleges all over the country. If you have a college student, you know that every dollar in scholarships counts.”